Homework and prefect duties
by Shinyzenith
Summary: Susan struggles with her Defence Against the Dark Arts homework. Hannah said she'd come help, why isn't she there yet?


There are seven commonly used shield charms that can be easily broken by the 'simple' shield-piercing hex, or at least there were according to the book Susan was reading. She had to briefly discuss all of them in a three foot long essay for Defence Against the Dark Arts. But actually using the spell would be far more interesting than writing a dull essay on it.

She sighed as she watched Snape stalk past the library entrance, dragging two frightened-looking young Gryffindors along with him. Why did that man insist on assigning impossibly long essays about spells that sounded interesting, but turned out to be too complex to be worth the effort to learn them?

It didn't help that she'd neglected to do the previous two essays, which had been about the shield charms that this particular hex could pierce. In short, she had no idea what to write, not to mention she barely understood what the book was trying to tell her. And she certainly didn't feel like searching for a different book that had the specifics on the mirror shield charm to get a better understanding. No, she'd seen enough books for one day.

She had asked her friend, Hannah Abbott, to come to the library after lunch to help her, but the girl still hadn't arrived several hours later. It was possible she decided not to help as a punishment for putting her work off for so long, but that wasn't really like Hannah. She was more likely to help and then spend the rest of the day reprimanding her for not starting sooner.

Despite her half-hearted attempts, Susan didn't really manage to produce anything by herself Snape would consider acceptable. Other than the meetings of Dumbledore's Army the previous year, she had never enjoyed or been very successful at Defence. Knowing Snape she'd get a T on the essay anyway, so she might as well not even bother any further. With that in mind Susan glanced around to see if Madam Pince was nearby, not spotting the strict librarian, she whipped out her wand and vanished the half-finished essay. The less she had to look at it, the better.

Feeling a lot better having put that behind her, she stowed away her quill and ink, and left what was probably the second most boring place in Hogwarts. Nothing could top Binns' classroom after all. Not having anything useful to do, she then decided to head to the Great Hall, it wasn't quite time yet for dinner but it couldn't hurt to get there a bit early. It would also give her the chance to spot Hannah the moment she arrived for dinner, in case she was trying to avoid her for some reason.

At dinner it turned out Hannah wasn't trying to avoid her, she had just been busy all afternoon with her prefect duties. And when Susan asked what could possible keep her busy all afternoon, she seemed only too happy to tell her all about it.

"I had just left for the library when I ran into some Ravenclaws and Slytherins fighting. I was really surprised, I mean, of course I've broken up a few fights since I've become prefect, but these kids were really trying to hurt each other badly. By the time I got there, there were already several unconscious on the floor, and the ones still standing were all covered in cuts and bruises."

Susan just stared at her friend, shocked. Small fights weren't uncommon, but it was really rare for anything that severe to happen. But mostly she was worried about Hannah. "You were fine on your own? They didn't attack you as well when you tried to break up the fight?"

"They did, but I was lucky. Anthony, the Ravenclaw prefect, showed up right after me, he'd heard the noise and had come to check it out. Together we were able to put a stop to it quite easily. But then we had to get them all to the Hospital Wing, and they weren't too cooperative there. After that Anthony left, he was meeting up with his girlfriend apparently, so I didn't want to keep him there. And then I had to go get McGonagall, she wasn't in her office or classroom, so it took a while to find her. She then went to get Dumbledore, luckily he was here today, and I had to stay a bit longer to tell him what happened. In the end, it was dinnertime by the time we finished."

"Wow, sounds like you had a busy afternoon." At times like these, Susan was glad she wasn't a prefect herself.

"I did. Anyway, did you get that essay done without me?"

She had trouble trying not to look too guilty. "Well, not really..."

Hannah shook her head in amusement. " I thought so. I'll help you after dinner if you promise to partner with me next time Snape makes us practise non-verbal spells, Ernie was far too serious about trying to be better than me.

"Okay, sure. Thanks Hannah."

* * *

QL season 3, round 2, beater one for Puddlemere United.

Prompts: _3\. mirror_ and _8\. partner_


End file.
